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Jim Harbaugh

After an old clip of the 49ers‘ head coach became an Internet sensation this week, he spent the first 90 seconds of his news conference fielding questions about 1996 appearance on the corny television sitcom, “Saved by the Bell.” Harbaugh, then the Colts’ quarterback, played Screech’s teamwork-preaching cousin. “My wife told me about it, and a few players did,” Harbaugh said. “So they’ve been making quite a bit of sport of me because of that.” The episode ended with Harbaugh accidentally knocking over his scrawny cousin with a too-hard slap on the back. Referencing his handshake and back rap of Detroit head coach Jim Schwartz, Harbaugh said, “There’s the evidence that it was just a normal handshake.”

- Eric Branch

Bill King

The Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting went to Tom Cheek, the late radio play-by-play man for the Blue Jays, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced Wednesday. “It’s great Tom got in,” said A’s general manager Billy Beane, who called Cheek “fantastic, a great baseball broadcaster.” Beane, like many Bay Area sports fans, would like to see the late Bill King enshrined next. King, whose varied career included calling A’s, Warriors and Raiders games, was a finalist for the award for the sixth time this year. “For all of us in the Bay Area, it’s hard to imagine that he’s not in the Hall of Fame,” Beane said. “For us, Bill King’s greatness extended beyond the A’s. We saw the whole package. … With Bill, in my opinion, it’s not a matter of if, but when.” Many around baseball believe that King’s time will come soon because he has been a finalist so many times. “I do think he’s getting close,” said Ken Korach, King’s longtime broadcast partner, “but Tom Cheek is also very deserving. His call of Joe Carter’s (World Series) home run will always be replayed: ‘Touch ‘em all Joe, you’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.’ ” Korach, who is working on a book about King, said Cubs broadcaster Pat Hughes told him that in his extensive research sportscasters, “by far, Bill King is the greatest all-around announcer, football, basketball and baseball – and it’s not even close.”